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Who Has Won The Most WSOP Tournaments?

The WSOP, or World Series Of Poker, is the ultimate poker tournament to win and the Main Event especially is something that every poker player desperately longs to play in let alone win! As such, the names that are on the winners list reads as a role of honour. Of course, since it was first played, the WSOP has had many winners. There were 33 different winners in total following the 2008 tournament, but just who has won the most.

Technically, the most successful WSOP of all time is Stu Ungar, who has been crowned champion after winning the WSOP Main Event three times. He was victorious in 1980, 1981 and 1997, with the final victory coming the year before his death. Johnny Moss also technically won the tournament three times, in 1970, 1971 and 1974 respectively. However, the first win was in a timed tournament and when time ran out, Moss was elected champion by his fellow players so he did not win it outright.

There are so many statistics and honours given as a result of winning or participating in the WSOP Main event that it is hard to keep up. However, below you can find a few of the most fascinating WSOP winners facts:

Stu Ungar, Johnny Moss, Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson are the only players to win back to back WSOP Main Events

Phil Hellmuth has won the most WSOP bracelets (11) and has sat at the most final tables (41) but has only actually won the WSOP Main Event once, in 1989

The 2008 winner, Peter Eastgate, was the youngest player to have ever won the WSOP at age 22

The 2007 winner, Jerry Yang, had only been playing poker for two years when he won the Main Event

Not one of the Players Of The Year has actually won the Main Event. Daniel Negreanu, Allen Cunningham, Jeff Madsen, Tom Schneider and Erick Lindgren were players of the year in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively and yet did not walk away with the Main Event title in those years

It’s a question if these records will ever be broken. The World Series of Poker gets bigger and bigger every year and the math just doesn’t support the idea of a back-to-back or multiple time champion. Consider that in 1997 when Stu Ungar won his third bracelet that were just 312 entrants in the World Series of Poker Main Event. In 2018, there were 7,874 entrants. That is quite the difference and the number seems to grow every year.

In 2018, John Cynn won the main event and 8,800,000 million dollars. In 2016, he managed to finish 11th in the WSOP. Mathematically, this is more impressive than any of the above back-to-back winners or Stu Ungar himself. That is an incredible run and one that most likely won’t be matched for a long time. He also managed to finish in the money at 10 other times in events at the World Series of Poker.